Honors & Scholars Program Advisory Committee Annual Report, 2008-2009
Committee Members: Timothy Greenlee (MKT), chair; Reza Akhtar (MTH), Nathaniel Ellis (student member, spring semester), John Forren (H&S) (ex officio), Julie Gifford (REL), Carolyn Haynes (H&S) (ex officio), Howard Kleiman (COM), Thomas Kopp (EDT), Janet Mokhnatkin (student member, fall semester), Larissa Spreng (student member). The principal responsibilities of the Honors and Scholars Program Advisory Committee (HSPAC) are to (1) review and approve all University Honors Program curricular policies and course proposals; (2) interview and select the recipient of the Joanna Jackson Goldman Memorial Prize; (3) select the recipient of the Honors and Scholars Medallion when appropriate; and (4) advise the Director of the University Honors and Scholars Program on curricular and administrative issues. HSPAC enjoyed a very productive year. The committee met formally on 15 occasions during the 2008-2009 academic year and accomplished the following: I. APPROVAL OF HONORS COURSES
Under curricular revisions approved by HSPAC in 2007-2008, the University Honors Program will debut a new curricular structure – featuring three distinct tiers of honors courses and co-curricular experiences – in fall 2009. To that end, the Committee approved the following courses this year for inclusion in the new Honors tiers: (a) Tier 1 Courses ATH/HST/POL/REL/RUS 254: Introduction to Russian and Eurasian Studies – hybrid course (Norris) CHM 141.H: College Chemistry (Isaacson) CLS 121.H: Introduction to Classical Mythology (Lyons) EAS 101.H: Computing, Engineering and Society (Ettouney) ECO 201.H: Principles of Microeconomics (Miller) ECO 202.H: Principles of Macroeconomics (Hart) EDT 180: Dominant Privilege in the United States (Heuberger) ENG 180: Everyday Hybridities: Anerican Narratives of Mixed Race Identity, 1967-present ENG 180: Representing Health: Disease, Illness, Patients and Narrative (Klestinec) ENG 180: National Identity, Sexuality and the Stranger in Literature (Morgan) ENG/DST 180: (Dis)ability in Latina/o and Latin American Literature and Film (Minich) GER 231.H: Folk and Literary Fairy Tales (Shen) GLG 141.H: Geology of U.S. National Parks (Sikorski) HST 180: How Do We Know the Past? Early Jamestown Through John
Smith’s Eyes (Pestana) JRN 101.H: Introduction to Journalism (Tobin) MBI 131.H: Community Health Perspectives (Woodworth) MKT 291.H: Principles of Marketing (Taylor) MUS 135.H: Understanding Jazz: Its History and Context (Garcia) PHL 101.H: Knowledge of World, God and Morality (Momeyer) PHL 105.H: Theories of Human Nature (Massie) PHL 180: Existential Themes in Philosophy and World Literature (Miller) PHY 180: Energy and the Environment (Rauckhorst) POL 201.H: Political Thinking (DeLue) REL 180: Religion and Russian Culture (Kenworthy) STA 261.H: Statistics (Murphree) ZOO 161.H: Principles of Human Physiology (Haynes) (b) Tier 2 Courses BOT 255: Introduction to Biotechnology – hybrid course (Barnum) EDT 280: Beyond Sudoku: Solving and Creating Logic Puzzles (Wanko) HST 280: Religion and Science: Natural Theology, Natural Selection and Intelligent Design (Blaisdell) JRN 280: Introduction to Narrative Nonfiction (Tobin) MBI 361.H: Epidemiology (Abshire) POL 302.H: Classical Political Philosophy (Delue) PSY 221.H: Social Psychology (Hugenberg) Tier 3 Courses ART 4XX: Summer Workshop in Nigeria – hybrid course (Featherstone and jegede) ATH 434: Anthropology of Democracy and Citizenship – hybrid course (Klumbyte) MKT 444.H: SocietyWise 360 (Oakenfull) Courses approved for 2008-09 only as Category A experiences: REL 180: Violence and Warfare in the Bible and the Ancient Near East (Lemos) JRN/STA 380: News and Numbers: Lies, Statistics and Stories The Media Tell (Campbell/Bailer)
(c)
(d)
II. APPROVAL OF ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCES FOR INCLUSION IN HONORS CURRICULAR TIERS: (a) Structured Student Teaching Experiences (Tier 3): The Committee approved a proposal to permit Honors Program students to count their supervised student teaching experiences as a Category A/Tier 3 experience.
III.
APPROVAL OF PROGRAM POLICIES
(a) Modifications to Honors Tuition Waiver Policies: The Committee approved a proposal to modify H&S tuition waiver policies as follows: Beginning with the entering class of fall 2009, Honors students will be eligible, on a onetime basis, for eight hours of tuition credit (instructional fees only) during a winter break, spring break, or summer session provided that they meet the following requirements: *Students must be in good standing in the University Honors Program. *Students can take advantage of this tuition credit one time only. *The tuition waiver is available for winter break, spring break, or summer study only (based on Miami’s academic calendar). *The tuition waiver must be used before the student’s final academic (fall or spring) semester at Miami. A student may not delay his/her graduation in order to use the waiver. *In exchange for receiving the waiver, the student must agree to study abroad during the academic year for at least one semester. If the student fails to complete a semester- or year-long study abroad program, they will be retroactively charged for the cost of the waiver. *The student may use the waiver (1) to directly defray tuition costs for a Miamisponsored study abroad experience that occurs during either the winter, spring or summer break in order to help them gain intercultural capacity for a semester- or year-long study abroad; or (2) to defray tuition costs for Miami credit-bearing courses that take place during the winter, spring or summer break to enable the student to have time in his or her schedule to complete a study abroad experience that occurs during the fall or spring semester. (b) Modification of Harrison Scholars Program: The Committee approved a restructuring of the Harrison Scholars Program so that, in the future, students receiving the Harrison Scholarship will be fully integrated into the University Honors Program with no additional requirements or programming. Additionally, University policy regarding aid amounts for Harrison scholarships will be restructured beginning with the fall 2010 entering class. All students who receive the scholarship will be given the equivalent of in-state tuition for eight semesters. The scholarship may be increased based upon the student’s financial need. (c) Development of Honors “Hybrid” Course Options: The Committee approved the development of ‘hybrid’ courses for inclusion in the Honors curriculum. Such courses – which are subject to case-by-case approval by the committee – are regular Miami course offerings that include specific faculty-designed enhancements for University Honors Program students. Upon successful completion of a hybrid course – including both the regular course requirements and the honors-specific enhancements – Honors students may count the course toward their UHP curricular requirements. The committee opted to limit hybrid courses generally to Tiers 2 and 3 of the new Honors curriculum – although Tier 1 hybrid proposals will be still considered on a caseby-case basis.
(d) Modification of Course Approval Protocols: The Committee adopted the following protocol for reviewing honors courses that have been taught previously by other instructors: (1) for each previously approved course being taught by a new instructor (or being taught in a significantly different way by a repeat instructor), the Associate Director of Curriculum will request a new course proposal that details how the course will advance the learning outcomes associated with the course’s assigned curricular tier; and (2) upon review by the Associate Director, this new proposal will be forwarded to a subcommittee of HSPAC for its review and approval. Honors Program staff will provide regular workshop/orientation opportunities for new instructors as well as individualized assistance in preparing course proposals. The reviewing subcommittee will consist of one voting student member and one voting faculty member of HSPAC, to be appointed annually by the committee chair. (e) Revision of Undergraduate Associates Program Policy: The Committee submitted a proposal to University Senate which offered some minor suggested changes for improvement. The University Senate approved the following revisions on April 6, 2009, SR 09-25: Eliminate the departmentally based UA Program and offer only one UA Program To be eligible, students must be in good academic standing (have at least a 2.5 cumulative GPA) and be a sophomore, junior or senior. Ask the faculty member and student to specify clear outcomes, responsibilities and a plan for assessment. IV. SELECTION OF GOLDMAN PRIZE RECIPIENT
The Committee selected Ms. Heather Hillenbrand as the 2009 recipient of Miami’s Joanna Jackson Goldman Memorial Prize. The prize, valued at approximately $30,000 in 2009-10, is awarded annually to allow an exceptional Miami senior to pursue a year-long project of his/her own design. It stands among the largest such undergraduate awards in the nation. Hillenbrand plans to travel to Britain’s University of Cambridge, where she will undertake a comprehensive study of osteoporosis in selected Neolithic, Iron-Age and early modern British populations. Working within the University’s famed Duckworth Collection of skeletal remains, she will work to adapt current-day clinical techniques of measuring bone density in order to examine how differences in lifestyle and environment contributed to variable rates of bone disease in pre-modern British women. The study promises to provide for the first time a standardized method of comparing bone density and fracturing in modern and pre-modern populations.